


Blood on Dark Waters

by lucidscreamer



Series: Sky and Sea [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Backstory, Battle, Chant, Drabble, Gen, Gen Work, Merfolk Warriors, Mermaids are fierce, Merman Yugi, Missing Scene, NOT The Little Mermaid, Original Mermaid Culture, Prose Poem, Sirens, Worldbuilding, nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-01 20:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16290881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: As the attacking Charm retreats, the victorious Singers --some bloody, bearing gashes along their flanks or tails--  shake their tridents at their enemy's fins and raise their Voices again.





	Blood on Dark Waters

As the attacking Charm retreats, the victorious Singers --some bloody, bearing gashes along their flanks or tails-- shake their tridents at their enemy's fins and raise their Voices again.

Watching, Yugi prays his Charm finds a new territory, safe from the predations of the open ocean. They need shelter, a grotto where they can rebuild. They're all weary, exhausted from travel and constant fighting.

But all are grinning fiercely, filled with the adrenaline of battle and the triumph of the Charm emerging intact, if not unscathed. He hopes they find a home soon, even as he joins the Song.

　

o0o

　

　

Blood swirls like smoke in the darkening water, blood of foe and friend alike. The warning pulse of Yugi's amulet -- shark! shark! -- beats a counterpoint to his drumming heart. The Singers have driven off the warriors whose territory they had trespassed too near, but their battle has drawn others, equally blood-thirsty: sharks in their seemingly endless numbers begin materializing out of the haze of the deep, drawn by spilt blood and the life-currents flickering in wounded bodies. Weariness aches in Yugi's body like a weight clinging to his limbs, an anchor chained to his tail and dragging him down. He arches in the water, hunting spear in hand, herding the young ones to the center of the shoal. Yugi is not a fighter, but he has fought this day, protecting, and when the warriors Sing, he raises his Voice with theirs.

　

We sing the red song, the war song,

the song of strife!

We sing the high waves, the crashing waves!

We sing the rough seas, the high winds,

the waterspout!

We sing the red song, the blood song,

the song of war!

We sing the hot blood, the racing heart!

We sing the trident's thrust, the talon's claw,

the strident Voice!

We sing the red song, the rising song,

the song of victory!

　

(They lose no one to sleek sliding death this day. And when they find their grotto, Yugi vows, he will lay a shark-toothed blade on Aheni Who Sings' new altar.)

　

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just some of the things that didn't fit in "A Secret Language of Seashells and Glass". I plan to use the same format for these "missing scenes" as the one I used in the main story.
> 
> Obviously, the warriors' chant isn't formatted as a part of the prose poem. I felt that it needed the line breaks in order for the rhythm to be apparent. (Sorry about the spacing; I couldn't figure out how to fix that.)
> 
> If there's a particular aspect of mer-culture (or something else from ASLoSaG) that you'd like to see expanded on, comment and I'll try to write something about it.


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